KARACHI: Make no mistake: Pakistani art is going places. Some of our contemporary artists are now international celebrities. The brilliant Pakistani pavilion at Dubai Expo 2020 is testimony to the claim. An exhibition titled Young Blood II (preceded by Young Blood I) that opened at the Canvas Art Gallery on Tuesday has on display works of, as the name suggests, eight artists who “are exploring the world around them”.

Another marked feature of the show with respect to international acclaim is that it has been curated by none other than Imran Qureshi. He is one of the finest and globally known artists that Pakistan has produced in the last decade or so. Therefore, if he decides to get involved with creative souls younger than him, then the exercise ought to be nothing less than special.

Special it is, because the variety of artworks on view is astounding. From heart-warming photographic images of landscape and people belonging to up-north to examining love and loss through delicate pieces on wood; and from the delightful acceptance of the aesthetic grace of art to studying postures of men and women with lathered up faces… the participating artists have it all. They enable the viewer to both enjoy wonders of the creative process and to mull over what’s being relayed through it in terms of messaging.

Add hard-to-avoid subjects such as memory and human perception and intriguing topics like the transient nature of existence and floral patterns to the list of exhibits, and what you get is a strong feeling that art in Pakistan is flourishing in multiple ways — and for our artists, the world is their oyster.

The exhibition — which contains artworks of Faheem Gul, Maha Sohail, Mamoon Tahir, Mariam Arshad, Rizwan Channa, Shamsul Arfeen Hashmi, Syeda Seearat Zainab and Zain-Ul-Mursaleen — will conclude on Oct 14.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2021